Author Topic: LS Pro Duo - what to do if one drive fails ?  (Read 16763 times)

Jason

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Re: LS Pro Duo - what to do if one drive fails ?
« Reply #15 on: May 23, 2009, 01:57:55 PM »
UFS Explorer

buscha

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Re: LS Pro Duo - what to do if one drive fails ?
« Reply #16 on: May 24, 2009, 10:42:20 AM »
   

Thanks for the tip, i was first trying PhotoRec and it has found some files so i am not completely lost even though the PRO DUO said that the drive was empty!!!!  But UFS explorer has the potential for recovering the directory structure so i'm checking that out.  because going through thousands of files (what photorec and foremost find) with unknown names but known file extensions still isn't a pure victory but it's winning a mini battle.

 

I did get an error with the Standard recovery program from UFS.  I was unable to copy it to the clipboard, it took 4 hours to compete a recovery scan (but the program died with a please send this to suppport), so i'll try to repeat the error tomorrow and post the error number.


JoshC

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Re: LS Pro Duo - what to do if one drive fails ?
« Reply #17 on: May 24, 2009, 02:38:48 PM »
If you are trying to recover the data then you can also mount the disk into to Linux machine and pull it off that way.  Yes the file format is XFS which is Linux.

buscha

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Re: LS Pro Duo - what to do if one drive fails ?
« Reply #18 on: May 25, 2009, 01:26:58 AM »
   

Photorec works on linux.  You can't directly mount these drives on linux.  XFS is more of an SGI operating system but is supported by most linux forms.  EXT2 or EXT3 is the normal linux filesystem.  The filesystem on the PRO DUO is a bunch of silly primary partitions then an extended partition inside where the XFS partition sits.  But that partition is labeled in a funny way so it won't be recognized by a non raid controler.  You can peer into the partition itself with dd if=/dev/sdxx where xx is the partition drive and number.  BUt you need a program to make sense of the data, especially when it's been initialized by a flash.  I'm hoping UFS will do more than just locate the files but actually identify them as being in directories, so far it's not working smoothly.


cbergeson

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Re: LS Pro Duo - what to do if one drive fails ?
« Reply #19 on: May 25, 2009, 01:38:04 PM »

Klaborde-  In the case of a drive failure on a Linkstation Pro Duo, the first thing you'll want to try is performing a disk structure, which can be done by going into the web interface for the unit, then going to disk management, raid setup, then clicking on the raid array that contains the drive that is having trouble.  Once in this page you should be prompted to check the problem disk and then hit restructure.  This will give you an error indicating possible data loss, but since you have raid 1 set up the data will be mirrored on the other drive and you will not lose any.  After the disk restructure completes it will rebuild the raid array, which may take a while. 

       If the restructure fails and problems persist with the drive, or if you are not prompted for a restructure, or cannot access the web interface for the unit, we will want to look into replacing the Linkstation for you.  Originally we could replace the individual drive, but at this point due to certain regulations that    davo referred to earlier we are not able to process replacement orders on individual drives from this unit, due to there being exposed wiring in the device, nor can we recommend you replacing the drive yourself, we can only recommend that we process a replacement order for the entire linkstation. 

       There have been several other helpful posters in this thread that have outlined the features and flaws of Raid technology, and while we do heartily endorse this technology as part of your data redundancy solution, as with any technology it is an excellent idea to be aware of Raid's shortcomings.  The one that causes the most confusion and frustration amongst customers is that Raid only protects against drive failures.  Errors that we see come up that can cause data loss/loss of access to the device include the Raid structure itself failing, the hardware other than the drive on the device becoming defective, and the firmware on the unit becoming corrupt.  While these problems are rare, they are potential problems that anyone wanting to use the Raid technology should take into consideration when deciding on what methods to use to preserve their data.  We want to assure you that we will do whatever is possible to help you regain access to the data stored on the unit should something like this happen.



buscha

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Re: LS Pro Duo - what to do if one drive fails ?
« Reply #20 on: May 26, 2009, 10:21:25 AM »
   

Good points. Certainly RAID systems are only useful when drives fail, but drives should fail much more often than raid hardware.  So having a device that has it's RAID hardware/software fail more likely than the drives is really not good business practice.

 

UPDATE on my failed raid1.  I've submited the report to UFS explorer and they gave me a beta version to try,if this can recreate part of the directory structure, i will have resolved the failure.  But even if not, i am still able to read files with PHOTOREC, they give them sequenced names so i'll have to figure out which file was which name but that is better than losing all the data.

 

Also, I don't know why people are saying there are "exposed wiring", the drives look like normal sata drives you can plug into any sata controler as i was able to do.


Colin137

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Re: LS Pro Duo - what to do if one drive fails ?
« Reply #21 on: May 26, 2009, 04:37:44 PM »

buscha wrote:
   

Photorec works on linux.  Youcan't directly mount these drives on linux.  XFS is more of an SGIoperating system but is supported by most linux forms.  EXT2 or EXT3 isthe normal linux filesystem.  The filesystem on the PRO DUO is a bunchof silly primary partitions then an extended partition inside where theXFS partition sits.  But that partition is labeled in a funny way so itwon't be recognized by a non raid controler.  You can peer into thepartition itself with dd if=/dev/sdxx where xx is the partition driveand number.  BUt you need a program to make sense of the data,especially when it's been initialized by a flash.  I'm hoping UFS willdo more than just locate the files but actually identify them as beingin directories, so far it's not working smoothly.


 

ddis not really necessary. If the drive is part of a RAID 1 array, thereis no striping or anything strange that would prevent a linux box fromreading it. The only thing that would prevent you from reading it onLinux with XFS support installed would be the filesystem label itself,as you mentioned. There is an easy workaround, however. First run"fdisk -l" to list the partitions, look for the largest partition onthe drive. Then run "file -s /dev/sdXX", this will tell you if thefilesystem is XFS for sure.

 

  • When mounting a single disk from a raid array (i.e. RAID1) in aLinux machine, you must specify the filesystem type as XFS. If youdon't, it won't mount:
root@linuxmachine:~# mount /dev/sdb4 /mnt/data
mount: unknown filesystem type 'linux_raid_member'
  • Specify XFS as the filesystem type with the -t switch:
root@linuxmachine:~# mount -t xfs /dev/sdb4 /mnt/data
root@linuxmachine:~# ls /mnt/data
drwxrwxrwx    2 root     root           22 Feb 13 18:43 FTPTest1
drwxrwxrwx    2 root     root            6 Jan 15 02:39 FTPTest2
drwxrwxrwx   12 root     root         4096 Mar 18 14:36 Share
drwxrwxrwx    2 root     root            6 Mar 13 11:52 restricttest

buscha

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Re: LS Pro Duo - what to do if one drive fails ?
« Reply #22 on: May 26, 2009, 05:17:39 PM »
   thanks for the tip, but my problem is unfortunatley more difficult than that.  Although, I should really mount with a forced xfs type like you mentioned, just to see what will happen.  But, i expect that will just give me an empty or unknown file system.  Since currently in the pro duo the drives are called RAID 0 when before my firmware update they were RAID 1.  I suspect the controller failed and somehow put a blank RAID 0 image on the initial sectors to make it look empty, but there is my data from the RAID 1 within the partition that photorec can see.  When the release candidate UFS explorer finishes, and doesn't reconstruct the filesystem, i'll try that mount and report.

Colin137

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Re: LS Pro Duo - what to do if one drive fails ?
« Reply #23 on: May 26, 2009, 05:45:05 PM »

"file -s /dev/sdXX" will tell you info about the contents of the partition:

 

root@linuxmachine:~# file -s /dev/sdb6
/dev/sdb6: SGI XFS filesystem data (blksz=3D4096, inosz=3D256, v2 dirs)

 

Obviously this won't tell you if the data's intact, only if there is a filesystem on the volume.


buscha

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Re: LS Pro Duo - what to do if one drive fails ?
« Reply #24 on: June 07, 2009, 02:07:35 PM »
   

I have used ufs explorer and photorec to get all that i could from my two  raid1 drives that my pro duo now sais are in raid0 mode.  I decided to try xfs_repair. In -n mode, xfs_repair says it finds a secondary super block that it can recover from so i've got not much to loose.  I tried it to my second drive.  It did a lot of stuff, and found a lot of errors.  But finished successfuly.  But i still can't mount the drive even when i specify xfs.

 

[root@localhost ~]# file -s /dev/sdd6
/dev/sdd6: SGI XFS filesystem data (blksz 4096, inosz 256, v2 dirs)
[root@localhost ~]# ls /mnt/x
[root@localhost ~]# mount /dev/sdd6 /mnt/x
mount: unknown filesystem type 'mdraid'
[root@localhost ~]# mount -t xfs /dev/sdd6 /mnt/x
mount: /dev/sdd6 already mounted or /mnt/x busy

 

[root@localhost ~]# xfs_repair /dev/sdd6
xfs_repair: warning - cannot set blocksize on block device /dev/sdd6: Device or resource busy
 

The drive is not busy (mounted) nor is my mount point.  I'm not sure why xfs_repair appears to be able to change the superblock but it can't set the block size or be mounted.  I know the data is still on there because i've recovered most of it.  But am i trying to get the filestructure back.  UFS explorer was probably the most promising product, but in the end it only was able to recover 1% of the files i could recover from Photorec, Foremost came in second by recovering only a few files that photo rec didn't already have. Since the files are unnamed it is still an option try to recover some of the directory structure so i can get to the files i really need that haven't been recovered yet by directory.  Still 10% hopefull.


buscha

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Re: LS Pro Duo - what to do if one drive fails ?
« Reply #25 on: June 08, 2009, 09:39:18 AM »
   all is well.  After the repair, i could not mount the drive from linux.  But using UFS standard access, I was able to see the drive AND ALL DIRECTORIES after booting to windows.  SO the answer to the question on what to do when LS Pro Duo has a controller failure and turns a RAID1 (mirror) into a RAID0 (continuous), is to STOP, DROP one of the two (i used the 2nd) Duo drives into a regular computer sata controlller, and ROLL back to linux, then try "xfs_repair -n /dev/xxxx".  If that output shows that it found a secondary superblock and verified it, then run "xfs_repair /dev/xxxx" and you may be able to mount there or use UFS explorer in windows, since there's a good chance the data is still there.  After this experience i am hesitant to continue to use the buffallo and have got another NAS, but i will still keep the buffalo around for backup purposes since i know i can recover from a controller catastrophe.
Message Edited by buscha on 06-08-2009 09:41 AM
Message Edited by buscha on 06-08-2009 09:44 AM

dieseljwt

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Re: LS Pro Duo - what to do if one drive fails ?
« Reply #26 on: January 16, 2010, 09:51:51 AM »
   

 

I always wondered what was the procedure for replacing a bad drive in my LS Duo Pro. There was certainly no documentation on it, which was amazing in itself, and an indicator of how much confidence Buffalo has in this product's ability to recover from this scenario.

 

So I was happy to find this topic, which I eagerly read through in its entirety, looking for something remotely reassuring. OMG...didn't find a shred of anything that inspired the remotest degree of confidence.

 

I have wasted my money, and half my NAS drive space on a completely useless implementation of "RAID".

 

I don't have a Linux system, and don't care to buy one just so I can try to diddle around with this piece of poorly-designed junk. I wonder what percentage of Buffalo users are unix people who are a) qualified, and b) willing, to do this?

 

This has become an expensive boat anchor. No, actually, it's always been that way, I just now figured it out, so shame on me.

 

This is the last Buffalo product that will ever enter my house. 

 


UMRS

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Re: LS Pro Duo - what to do if one drive fails ?
« Reply #27 on: January 16, 2010, 10:18:54 AM »
   

I agree this is our first and last buffalo purchase. As soon as we can get the funds were replacing this unit with something from Iomega. Might be a little more expensive but as they say you get what you pay for.


davo

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Re: LS Pro Duo - what to do if one drive fails ?
« Reply #28 on: January 16, 2010, 10:22:53 AM »
   

dieseljwt wrote:

 

I always wondered what was the procedure for replacing a bad drive in my LS Duo Pro. There was certainly no documentation on it, which was amazing in itself, and an indicator of how much confidence Buffalo has in this product's ability to recover from this scenario.

 

So I was happy to find this topic, which I eagerly read through in its entirety, looking for something remotely reassuring. OMG...didn't find a shred of anything that inspired the remotest degree of confidence.

 

I have wasted my money, and half my NAS drive space on a completely useless implementation of "RAID".

 

I don't have a Linux system, and don't care to buy one just so I can try to diddle around with this piece of poorly-designed junk. I wonder what percentage of Buffalo users are unix people who are a) qualified, and b) willing, to do this?

 

This has become an expensive boat anchor. No, actually, it's always been that way, I just now figured it out, so shame on me.

 

This is the last Buffalo product that will ever enter my house. 

 


Hmm you do realise that linux is free right? And also you say that you are not willing to do this, so what exactly ARE you willing to do? Power it on maybe?

Have you actually tried replacing the ******* disk or are you just going to moan and groan about every little hiccup you come across?!

Buffalo say they do not replace the disks so why the hell would they document how to do so?

You don't even say if you still have access to your data? Do you???!!! If so then the RAID has worked correctly so what are you complaining about?

If you do not have access to this then how do you know its not the controller or the RAID itself?!!!

Sorry to go on like this but i am sick to death of people on this forum coming on and ranting and raving about something that the vast majority (not all) don't really understand!!

If you would just take the time to explaing the situation then there are people here that give up there time (FOR FREE I MIGHT ADD) to help you come to some kind of conclusion!

P.S I really don't think it would make a very good boat anchor :P

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UMRS

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Re: LS Pro Duo - what to do if one drive fails ?
« Reply #29 on: January 16, 2010, 10:45:04 AM »
   

Im sorry but when the makers of this drive tell you it should be backed up, whats the point? Thats what most people bought it for to begin with. If thats to simple a concept to grasp Im sorry. I didnt have to buy this drive to get a cheap software 'raid' I could have done that on my own.